Apparatus for tanning



(No Model.)

' E. H. DEWSON.

t APPARATUS FOR TANNING.

No. 590,390. Patented Sept. 21,1897.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EDWARD H. DEWSON, OF Q MASSACHUSETTS- APPARATUS FOR TANNING.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 590,390, dated September 21, 1897. Application filed April 22, 1897. Serial No. 633,292. (No modeLfi T0 ctZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, EDWARD H. DEWSON, of Quincy, in the county of Norfolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Apparatus for Tanning, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like letters on the drawings representing like parts.

In old processes of tanning hides for the production of leather the hides and skins passed through many steps, requiring weeks and months to complete the tanning, but recently very valuable processes have been discovered whereby the tanning is completed in a few hours without detriment to the leather produced. In this new quick process, which is now coming rapidly into use, it is customary to place the hides, skins, &c., to be tanned in a revolving drum in the presence of the tanning liquor. These drums have a single compartment and they are but partially filled with hides and skins, so that the load always lies on the inner surface of the drum below its axis of rotation, and as the drum is rotated slowly the material is somewhat raised with the drum in the direction of its rotation and then falls back, the material being consequently rolled or tumbled over. These drums as now made are large and expensive and the whole upper part of the drum presents unused space, and as the load or weight is wholly below the center of rotation of the drum a large amount of power is required to keep the drum in motion.

I have aimed to cheapen the operation of tanning hides, skins, &c., by the quick processes referred to, and I have achieved my object by producing a liquor-tight drum having a plurality of liquor-tight compartments in which the hides, skins, 850., may be loaded, each compartment doing the full work of each of the drums such as now used, these several compartments enabling the whole area of the drum to be utilized rather than but a small portion thereof, as heretofore common, and as my improved drum is rotated the hides, skins, &c., in each compartment roll and tumble one over the other in the proper manner, each mass of hides in its own liquor, and each mass of hides will be, it will be understood, always immersed in the tanning liquor,

the hides not being removed from said liquor during the tanning operation, such constant and uniform action of the tanning liquor on the hides being essential for uniform, even, and quick tanning.

Increasing the compartments in the drum greatly increases the quantity of hides, skins, 850., which maybe treated in one and the same drum, and, what is also of great importance, the loading of these multiple compartments extended entirely about the axis of rotation of the drum enables the weight carried by the drum, consisting of both hides and liquor, to be so placed that the drum is always in substantial balance, there always being hides and liquor present both below and above the axis of the drum, and being so in balance said drum may be turned steadily with but the" exertion of the minimum of power, and in a factory using many of these drums the saving of power becomes a very important factor in the cost of producing the leather.

My invention consists of an apparatus for the quick tanning of hides, 810., comprising two or more, and preferably four, independent compartments out of communication with one another, each having a charging-hole and cover therefor and adapted to contain tanning liquor and hides, the several compartments being arranged in a single plane and revolving about a center in the same path of movement, the said plane and path of movement being vertical when the apparatus has a horizontal axis of rotation, as shown.

Figure l of the drawings shows in end View an apparatus embodying my invention; Fig. 2, a front end elevation thereof and Fig. 3a section in the dotted line 00, Fig. 2.

The uprights A receive the shaft or journals B of the drum 0, herein shown as made up of boiler-steel, but it maybe of any other usual or suitable material, the interior of the said drum having a series of partitions c,here in shown as four, thus dividing the drum into aplurality of compartments. Each compartment is accessible through a chargingliole provided with a cover (Z, held in place, preferably liquor-tight, by a suitable locking device, which may be a bar 6, one end of which enters an eye in an ear e on the drum, the other end of the bar entering an open slot of an ear e a set-screw carried by the bar acting on the outside of the cover cl and seating it firmly on the charging-hole. The charging-holes may be located in any desired portion of each compartment.

When hides, skins, &c., are to be put into the drum, the latter will be turned until two of the charging-holes are brought above the center of the drum, and then the hides, skins, &c., the covers being removed, will be put into the two compartments, opened, and the liquor with which the hides, skins, &c., are to be treated will be put into the said compartments and the covers will be again ap: plied 1iqu0rtight, after which the drum will be rotated one-half around until the other compartments and their covers are brought above the center of the drum, when the said covers may be removed and the new compartments thus exposed may be filled, as stated, and the covers closed, and then the drum will be rotated at the proper speed for the desired time to let the liquor do its work.

The drum is rotated by means of a toothed wheel D, which is engaged by a pinion E on a shaft F, provided with any usual fast or loose pulley.

Other means than that shown and described may be employed for rotating the drum.

The drum may have two or more compartments, the number being immaterial so long as there are more than one, and they are arranged upon dilferent sides of the axis of rotation, so that the loaded drum is substantially counterbalanced by its load.

I do not claim an open or skeleton drum having two or more spaces, but myinvention comprehends independent and non-communicating liquor-tight compartments.

equals in capacity the usual one-compartment drum; also, there is a great economy of floortical for use in quick tanning, for by the use of such a drum the hides could not be tanned uniformly, and, further, the liquor, always lying below the axis of rotation of the drum, makes it impossible to uniformly balance the drum, as in my invention.

Having fully described my invent-ion, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

An apparatus for quick tanning of hides &c., comprising a plurality of liquor-tight compartments, independent of and non-communicating with each other, and severally having a charging-hole and cover therefor, and adapted to contain tanning liquor and hides, the several compartments being assembled in asingle plane around a common center of motion, and means to move said compartments in the same path of travel about said center, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

EDIVARD H. DEIVSON.

IVit-nesses:

GEO. W. GREGORY, LAURA MANIX. 

